In China, when a child is found, an ad is placed in the paper usually with a picture of the child. It's called the finding ad. I'm not sure of the purpose of the ad. I once thought it was so that if a child was lost, and not left, their parents might find them. Some of these ads have pictures, some do not. When Brittany and Madison were adopted, finding ads were not being done. It's a practice that began shortly before we brought Shaun home. My first experience with the emotions involved in seeing my child's finding ad was when we received Shauns. He was found in Nanning, China. Im not sure how often the finding ads are placed in Nanning. What struck me when I saw his, was how many names were there. Columns and columns of babies... It was heartbreaking to see. It was overwhelming...
I ordered Liam's finding ad a while back. I submitted the date he was found, his birthdate and his name. It took months to find it because the ad was not placed until 5 months AFTER he was found at age 4. What is precious to me is that this photo of him pre-dates any that we have and is the only glimpse of him from earlier years. Unfortunately, not a happy glimpse.
I have often wondered what kind of desperation must a person feel to drop a 4 year old off on a street corner and walk away. Although I try to push the thought from my mind, I wonder....what kind of mother could do this.... My thoughts go from pity to anger that this boy had to live through that fear, being alone...at age 4.
His finding ad gives the exact location that he was found. It lists the name the orphanage has given him and it lists any particular details about him. I was surprised to see that when Liam was found he was wearing a heart shaped lock pendant and a key pendant on his neck.
This has spiraled my thinking into different scenarios, the first of which was, my boy was not abandoned, he was lost, the second is, If someone had no other choice but to leave him, did they place that on him before? Did he have a family that truly loved him and had no other choice? These are questions I will never know the answers to. The only thing I do know is that he has a family waiting who already loves him unconditionally.
I hope his orphanage has saved his necklace, this piece of his past. I'd like to have it for him. It's his one and only connection to his life prior to being Qian Lin Le, aka Liam Joseph LinLe Collins.
No comments:
Post a Comment